Contact center sizing and broadcasting based on probabilities

• US 8,510,146 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2008
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jordan, Kenneth, Gouda, Khaled A., Houri, Soufiane
• Primary Examiner(s): OBAID, FATEH M
• Application Number:
  US12/204,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20100057521A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A contact center or enterprise communication system is provided. The system includes a first contact associated with a first task offer; one or more resources operable to accept the first task offer; and a contact center or enterprise communication system operable to determine a broadcast group of the one or more resources as a function of an acceptance factor for one or more of the resources.

Claims

1. Logic encoded in one or more non-transitory tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive a first customer service request,

generate a task offer for the first customer service request automatically based on a task for the first customer service request, such that the task offer is operable to be accepted, denied, or ignored by one or more agents,

calculate one or more acceptance factors for the one or more agents based on traffic intensity; and

determine a minimum set of the one or more agents as a function of the one or more acceptance factors of the one or more agents, wherein the one or more acceptance factors indicate one or more probabilities that the task offer will be accepted or attempted to be accepted by the one or more agents,

wherein the one or more acceptance factors is a plurality of acceptance factors (p), and a minimum set of one or more resources (m) support a contact center to achieve a service level goal (m′

) according to an equation m′

=m/p.

2. The non-transitory tangible media of claim 1, when executed also operable to determine a minimum set of agents that support a contact center that received a first customer service contact as a function of the one or more acceptance factors of the one or more agents.

3. The non-transitory tangible media of claim 1, when executed also operable to populate a set with the one or more agents associated with a contact center to satisfy a service level goal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining at the processor, a broadcast group of the minimum set of the one or more agents; and

broadcasting a task offer to the broadcast group.

5. Logic encoded in one or more non-transitory tangible media for execution and when executed operable to:

receive a first customer service request;

generate a first task offer for the first customer service request;

calculate one or more acceptance factors for one or more agents based on traffic intensity; and

determine a minimum set of the one or more agents as a function of the one or more acceptance factors of the one or more agents, wherein the one or more acceptance factors indicate one or more probabilities that the first task offer will be accepted or attempted to be accepted by the one or more agents.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to calculate one or more acceptance factors based on contact information.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to calculate one or more acceptance factors based on a quantity of the one or more agents.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to determine a broadcast group as a function of the one or more acceptance factors.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to broadcast the first task offer to the broadcast group.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to broadcast the first task offer to a minimum set of the one or more agents to ensure that the first task offer is accepted.

11. The system of claim 5, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to determine a broadcast group and a minimum set of the one or more agents required to satisfy a service level goal.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the broadcast group is a first broadcast group, and the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to:

receive a second customer service request;

generate a second task offer for the second customer service request;

determine a second broadcast group as a function of the one or more acceptance factors of the one or more agents not in the first broadcast group; and

broadcast the second task offer to the second broadcast group.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the logic when executed by the processor is further operable to broadcast the second task offer after the first task offer was broadcasted and before the first task offer was accepted by an agent included in the first broadcast group.

14. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving at a processor, a first customer service request,

generating at the processor, a first task offer for the first customer service request based on a task for the first customer service request;

calculating at the processor, one or more acceptance factors for the one or more agents based on traffic intensity; and

determining at the processor, a minimum set of the one or more agents as a function of the one or more acceptance factors,

wherein the one or more acceptance factors is a plurality of acceptance factors (p),

and wherein a minimum set of one or more resources (m) support a contact center to achieve a service level goal (m′

) according to the equation m′

=m/p.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising calculating one or more acceptance factors based on contact information.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising calculating one or more acceptance factors based on a quantity of the one or more agents.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a broadcast group as a function of the one or more acceptance factors.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising broadcasting the first task offer to the broadcast group.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising broadcasting the first task offer to a minimum set of the one or more agents to ensure that the first task offer is accepted.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a broadcast group and a minimum set of the one or more agents required to satisfy a service level goal.